You've seen them around. They tuck in their button down shirts, belt their trousers and wear leather shoes. Carrying briefcases and lost in thought, hundreds of scientists populate Telluride in the summer months. They are the geeky visitors, standing out from the burly adventure seekers or aimless tourists bent on shopping, eating ice cream and drinking beer. Few people in Telluride know who they are or why they are here.

From late June through August, the science season in Telluride operates in force. Scientists who participate in the Telluride Science Research Center's programs pulse through the valley on a weekly basis, and provide the intellectual capital for the Pinhead Town Talks and Pinhead Punk Science programs.

They hail from around the world, drawn to Telluride for the same reasons so many of us come here - the natural beauty, mountain trails, night skies and respite from congested urban landscapes. Yet, for the past 24 years, scientists from an array of disciplines have descended upon Telluride primarily by the prospect of doing great science. That's the part that we locals don't see. They hole up much of the time in the Intermediate School or Camel's Garden plugging away at difficult stuff.

"Telluride workshops are different from traditional conferences,” said Tamiki Komatsuzaki, a 2007 TSRC organizer of The Complexity of Dynamics and Kinetics in Many Dimensions workshop, and professor at Kobe University in Japan.

"Participants frequently interrupt a presenter and we all ask dozens of questions during the talks. Such interactive presentations were quite effective and helpful in digging into and inventing new, untouched problems.”

TSRC workshops are aimed at exploring exciting, open questions by stirring scientists to begin new collaborations with colleagues from different disciplines or different focuses within the same field.

And these scientists are the best in the world. They come by invitation from Harvard, Stanford, the Sorbonne, University of Tokyo, Beijing University, University of Cambridge, NASA, among other renowned institutions. This Friday marks the last day of TSRC for the 2007 season. Four-hundred-thirty scientists walked the venerated streets and trails of Telluride this summer, making it the busiest TSRC season yet.

Many of their discussions take place outside of the meeting venues. Invariably, they break from their more structured presentations to hike our local exercise paths Jud Wiebe and Bear Creek, but also to tackle the more ambitious trails of Sneffels Highline, Wasatch, Ballard or Ajax. As an organization, TSRC promotes the off times, the informal opportunities for stimulating new ideas and new directions for science, be it in chemistry, physics, or biology, that may only come from the rarified air and stunning vistas of mountains.

"Several new collaborations were launched this year,” said Rigoberto Hernandez, organizer of the 2007 Chemistry and Dynamics in Complex Environments workshop and Georgia Tech professor. “In particular, the fact that we brought theoretical and experimental scientists from different fields led to some unexpected synergies.”

TSRC also values students: “We promote bringing young scientists into informal, close contact with more senior scientists in an environment where everyone can openly recognize that there are lots of things we don't yet understand,” said Stephen Berry, co-founder of TSRC and distinguished professor emeritus at the University of Chicago. In addition to being invited to participate in various workshops over the years, TSRC is launching a new concept of Summer Schools for students. Thirty-five graduate students came to Telluride in 2006 for a two-week “Summer School on Probing the Dynamics of Liquids and Biomolecules: Theory and Experiment Workshop,” which was funded by a $75,000 grant from the National Science Foundation.

TSRC's reach goes beyond university students. It is from TSRC's cadre of 1,200 scientists that local Telluride non-profit, Pinhead Institute, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, plucks speakers for Pinhead Town Talks, Pinhead Punk Science, Pinhead's Scholars in the Schools and mentors for the Pinhead Internship Program. TSRC and Pinhead work in close collaboration to educate the regional public about science.

"Science outreach is very important to TSRC,” said TSRC president John Straub, Boston University professor of chemistry and 2007 organizer of the Vibrational Dynamics Workshop. “As scientists, we all feel that educating the general public is part of our responsibility. Pinhead Institute is a natural partner for us in the Telluride region and we are delighted to continue working closely with them.”

Straub has participated in numerous Pinhead programs and lectured in the Telluride Unearthed series hosted by the Telluride Historical Museum and Pinhead Institute.

TSRC co-founder Stephen Berry was instrumental in the creation of the 2007 inaugural Pinhead Punk Science program, which attracted an average of 40 children to each of the seven events held in Mountain Village this summer.

"Punk Science is intended to make kids realize that a lot of ordinary phenomenon of everyday life are interesting things to think about.” Berry gave last week's Town Talk and Punk Science presentations, and last summer, mentored Norwood student Mesa Hollenbeck at the University of Chicago in physics for six weeks in the Pinhead Internship program.

The Pinhead Town Talks, built on a long TSRC tradition of public lectures, is hosted by TSRC executive director Nana Naisbitt. TSRC scientists gave seven of the nine 2007 Town Talks, which attracted on average a 100 people per talk and 5,000 viewers via web-casting by Ron Bromley of Hypersloth. The program was also broadcast by TCTV Channel 12. The series is supported by the Town of Mountain Village.

TSRC reaches deep into the Telluride community, albeit quietly. Whether conducting research or educating the public, TSRC is part of Telluride. Dubbed “pinheads” by many (furthering the confusion between where TSRC starts and Pinhead finishes), they do resemble the original pinheads of the late 19th Century. L.L. Nunn's students from Cornell University, geeky engineers, were visibly different from the wiry miners who dominated the scene at the time.

For more information contact Naisbitt, TSRC executive director, at nana@telluridescience.org.